News broadcasters agree to form emergency protocol

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

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News broadcasters gave their assent for the formation of an emergency protocol that includes proposals to delay live coverage of senstive incidents like 26/11 and to expunge information on operational details..

Criticised for their coverage of Mumbai terror attacks, news broadcasters gave their assent for formation of an “emergency protocol” to cover emergency situations like terror attacks or any special operation of the armed forces.

The protocol, which could be one of the several amendments to the existing Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act 1995, includes proposals to delay live coverage of sensitive incidents and to expunge information on operational details.

The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) however, rejected the idea of an authority - that will formulate the emergency protocol - to be set up under the chairmanship of any of the three service chiefs or any official from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

The broadcasters suggested that they themselves would take the initiative to set up such an authority.

NBA secretary general Annie Joseph in a statement said that the “authority set up by the NBA under the chairmanship of Retd Chief Justice of India J S Verma would work towards creating an emergency protocol for all news channels in 26/11 like situations”.

The idea of setting up the protocol emerged during a meeting held here between the minister of state for I&B Anand Sharma and the news broadcasters, who were present under the aegis of NBA.

Representatives of channels like Times Now, NDTV, India TV, CNN-IBN among others were present at the meeting.

According to ministry sources, the broadcasters were also asked to refrain from airing content that could be disturbing to children’s minds.